Top Girls: Act One, Scene One Summary & Analysis

In a restaurant in London on a Saturday night, Marlene sits alone at a table set for six. She orders a bottle of wine from a waitress, and then welcomes her first dinner party guest, Isabella Bird, a nineteenth-century writer, explorer, and naturalist. They greet each other like old friends, and Isabella congratulates Marlene. Marlene wishes she could take a vacation to somewhere like Hawaii to celebrate her recent success, but has settled for a dinner party instead. Isabella reminisces about her own time in Hawaii—when she first traveled there, she wanted to stay forever, and even sent for her sister, Hennie, to come join her on the islands. Isabella asks if Marlene has a sister, and Marlene says that she does.

Marlene’s second guest, Lady Nijo, arrives at the party. Lady Nijo was a thirteenth-century concubine who eventually became a Buddhist nun. Marlene greets Nijo excitedly, and introduces her to Isabella. The waitress returns and pours all the women some wine—Marlene remarks that she could use a drink, as it has been a big week for her. Nijo reflects on her own time at court, and how the men always used to get drunk while she passed around sake. One night, she says, her father and the Emperor became very drunk, and the Emperor asked for Nijo’s father to send her to live as his concubine come springtime.

As Nijo tells her story, Marlene and Isabella interject with their own opinions. Isabella recalls once meeting the Emperor of Morocco, while Marlene asks Nijo whether the emperor was old or not. Nijo states that he was twenty-nine; she herself was fourteen. She describes sending back the Emperor’s gift of an eight-layered gown, even though her own gowns were thin and badly ripped. Marlene asks if the Emperor raped Nijo—“Of course not,” Nijo replies, stating that she belonged to the Emperor; service to him “was what [she] was brought up for from a baby.” Soon after she became the Emperor’s concubine, Nijo found herself feeling sad if he ever stayed away for more than a day or so, and dreaded bringing “other women to him.”

Isabella remarks that she never saw her own father drunk, as he was a clergyman. She adds that she did not marry until she was fifty. Nijo replies that her own father was religious, too; before he died, he advised Nijo to enter the holy order if she ever fell out of favor at court. Isabella points out that Nijo eventually became a wandering nun—surely going against her father’s wishes, as he probably wanted her to stay put in a convent. Nijo defends herself, stating that at the end of the day, she “still did what [her] father wanted,” or at least tried to. 

Dull Gret arrives at the party. Marlene introduces Gret to Nijo, while Isabella greets Gret as if they already know one another. The waitress has brought the women their menus, and Marlene wonders aloud if they should wait for Joan before they put their orders in; the last guest, Griselda, she says, is going to be late. Isabella begins describing her own attempt to be a dutiful clergyman’s daughter. She took up needlework, music, and “charitable schemes”; after an operation to have a tumor removed from her spine, she was forced to spend much of her time recovering on the sofa, reading and studying poetry and convincing herself that she enjoyed intellectual pursuits.

Nijo interjects that she herself comes from a line of eight generations of poets. Isabella states that she was always more suited to manual work such as cooking, mending, and horseback riding, and longed to live “a rough life in the open air.” Nijo says that she did not enjoy her own “rough life”—the high point of her life, she says, was being the Emperor’s favorite and wearing fine silks.

Isabella attempts to engage Gret in conversation, asking if she ever had any horses. Gret replies with one word only: “Pig.” Pope Joan arrives at the party—Marlene is grateful that their group can at last order some food. Marlene asks Joan if she knows everyone, and tells Joan that they were all just talking about “being clever girls.” She asks Joan what excited her when she was ten; Joan gives an esoteric answer about angels. The women all laugh and look at their menus. As they continue sharing stories, the waitress comes around to take orders.

The conversation turns to death, as Isabella recalls her father’s death, and Nijo recalls her father’s, too. Joan states that “death is the return of all creatures to God.” The women begin discussing religion; Isabella identifies herself as a member of the Church of England, and Marlene states that though she hasn’t been to church for years, she enjoys Christmas carols. She admits to not doing any “good works.” Nijo says that the first half of her life was “all sin,” and the second “all repentance.” The women talk over each other, ordering appetizers and more wine. They continue comparing their religious beliefs, and eventually Joan and Nijo begin to snipe at one another over heresy. When Isabella remarks that they all should have kept off the topic of religion, Joan confesses that she is “a heresy” herself. 

The food arrives, and Marlene seems to hope the conversation will turn away from religion, but Nijo presses on. She says that when she fell out of favor at court, she had nothing, and so chose to turn to religion, which she saw as a “kind of nothing.” Marlene tries to distract Nijo by offering her wine, but Nijo just grows more morose, asking the other women if they have ever felt like their lives were over and they were “dead already.” Marlene admits to feeling that way when she first came to London, and when she returned from her travels in America—“but only for a few hours.”

Isabella reflects on a time when she thought her life was over—at forty, she was sent on a cruise to Australia for her health. She looked and felt miserable and suicidal. Nijo commiserates, saying she felt the same way when she began dressing as a nun. Marlene is surprised to hear Isabella and Nijo admit to such feelings, as she thought travelling cheered them both up. Nijo says she is not a cheerful person; she just laughs a lot. Isabella, on the other hand, admits that travelling did eventually bolster her; on a trip from Australia to the Sandwich Islands, she “fell in love with the sea.” She woke up each morning of the journey grateful to be freed from having to get dressed up. Nijo comments that her favorite part of her role as a concubine was the luxurious clothing.

Pope Joan declares that she herself dressed as a boy as early as she could. She ran away with a male friend a few years older than her—she wanted to study in Athens, but women were not allowed in libraries in the Middle Ages. Isabella states that in all her travels she never dressed as a man. Marlene says that she never wears trousers in the office—she could, but she chooses not to. Joan describes traveling with her friend, sharing a bed with him, and masquerading as poor students. “I think I forgot I was pretending,” she says.

Isabella tells the women about a mountain man she encountered in her travels through America who fell in love with her. She knew she could not marry him, though, and so returned to England—she mournfully tells the women she never saw him again, though she had a vision of him in a dream; later, she learned that the day of her vision had been the day of his death. Lady Nijo tells the women that one of her lovers died, too—he was a priest named Ariake. Joan adds that her friend from her travels died—they all have dead lovers, she observes.

Nijo begins telling Isabella the story of Ariake—she met him when she was still at court. He was a Buddhist priest, and shared his beliefs about the afterlife and reincarnation with her. Joan, meanwhile, tells Marlene about her friend, with whom she’d passionately debated scripture and theology. After her friend died, Joan says, she decided to continue pretending to be man, and to devote her life to learning. She went to Rome, she says, because Italian men at the time did not grow beards.

Isabella says that she never fell in love with the mountain man—rather the loves of her life were her sister, and her “dear husband”—the doctor who nursed her sister, Hennie, through her illness and death. When Hennie died, Isabella felt that half of her had “gone,” and she saw no way to continue her travels. The only thing that brought her solace was seeing how the doctor, Doctor Bishop, had the same “sweet character” as Hennie, and had been tenderly devoted to Hennie throughout her illness. For this reason, she decided to marry him. Nijo says that she thought the Emperor had a sweet character, as well, as he was supportive of her affair with Ariake—but really, she understands now, he had just stopped caring for her, and began arranging for her to sleep with other men from court. 

Isabella was only married for a short time before her husband also fell ill and died. She herself was afflicted with gout, and fell into a depression. Nijo reflects on how, without the Emperor’s favor, she felt she had “nothing” in her life. As for Joan, she reveals that she devoted herself entirely to her studies—as she became more and more well-known as a teacher, she became famous, and huge crowds gathered to hear her speak. As Marlene listens to Joan’s story, she remarks that “success is very…” but trails off as Joan, Isabella, and Nijo’s stories continue. Isabella, at fifty-six, decided to leave her grief behind and set off for Tibet; Nijo left court on foot and wandered Japan for the next twenty years; Joan was chosen to be Pope, and became excited at the prospect of finally getting to “know God.”

Marlene orders more wine from the waitress; though Griselda still isn’t present, she says that she wants to make a toast to the gathered women. Isabella points out that they are all gathered to celebrate Marlene’s success. Joan asks what exactly Marlene has achieved; Marlene replies that while she hasn’t been made Pope, she has been made managing director of her firm, an employment agency called Top Girls. Nijo admires Marlene for being promoted “over all the women [at the firm,] and the men [as well.]” The women all toast Marlene, and Marlene toasts them in return. She raises a glass to her friends’ success and her own: “To our courage and the way we changed our lives and our extraordinary achievements.” 

Joan continues her story. She found that once appointed to the papacy, God did not speak to her: “he knew I was a woman,” she says. Marlene is amazed that no one else suspected Joan to be a woman. Joan reveals that she took a lover at the Vatican—one of her servants. When Nijo asks what the man was like, Joan replies only that “he could keep a secret.” Joan enjoyed being Pope, but worried when she received news of earthquakes and plagues in Italy and France that she had brought misery to Europe through her false claim to the papacy.

If it hadn’t been for the baby, Joan says, she would’ve ruled to an old age. Nijo asks Joan to tell them what happened to her baby; she says that she herself had “some babies.” Marlene asks Joan if she thought of getting rid of the child; Joan points out that that would have been a worse sin than having the baby. Joan admits that at first she didn’t know what was happening; she thought she was just getting fatter. When her lover pointed out what had happened, she “didn’t want to pay attention” to the matter; “it was easier to do nothing.”

Nijo begins talking about her own pregnancies. Her first child was the Emperor’s and it died as an infant; her second was one of her lovers’, a man named Akebono. To disguise the fact that the child was not the Emperor’s, Akebono and Nijo conspired to deliver the baby in secret. The baby was a girl, and Akebono took the child away from Nijo as soon as it was gone. Nijo told the Emperor she had miscarried as the result of an illness, and “the danger was past.”

Joan tells Nijo that she wasn’t used to having a woman’s body—she had all but forgotten that she could get pregnant in the first place, and so couldn’t plan to have the child in secret or give it away. On the day of a major religious procession, Joan went into labor, and delivered her baby right in the street in front of her attendants and commoners alike. The cardinals immediately dragged Joan out of town by the feet and stoned her to death. When Nijo asks if the child died, too, Joan says that she doesn’t know what happened to it. Isabella blithely states that she never had any children and was instead fond of horses. Nijo recalls seeing her daughter by Akebono only once—the child was being “brought up carefully so she could be sent to the palace” as a concubine one day, just like Nijo.

Nijo continues talking about her own children—her third child was the son of Ariake, the priest, as was her fourth. She never saw either of them after they were born, but oddly, she says, by the fourth child she “felt nothing.” Marlene asks Gret, who has been nearly silent thus far, how many children she had; Gret replies “ten.”

Marlene asks aloud why she and her guests are “all so miserable.” Isabella talks about her extensive charity work in England, which she undertook between adventures around the word. Joan tells the women that after her, the Vatican introduced a special chair with a hole in the seat, which each new pope had to sit on while clergymen looked up his skirts to make sure he was a man. Griselda arrives, but everyone is so delighted by Joan’s anecdote about the chair that no one notices. It is clear that at this point, everyone is “quite drunk.” 

Marlene notices Griselda and greets her—Griselda apologizes for her lateness. Though the women have all finished their dinners, Marlene asks Griselda if she’d like to order something, but Griselda declines. Marlene tells Griselda they are all ordering dessert, and Griselda agrees to have some.

Marlene tells everyone that Griselda’s life is “like a fairy story,” except her marriage to a prince is only the start of the tale. The women begin asking Griselda about herself, and she reveals that she was married at fifteen. She had seen the Marquis riding by, but she was only a peasant girl, and never thought he’d noticed her. On the Marquis’s wedding day, Griselda went outside to see the procession—the wedding had been announced, but not the bride. As Griselda joined the other peasants who were waiting anxiously to get a glimpse of the lucky woman, the carriage stopped at Griselda’s cottage—the Marquis spoke to Griselda’s father, and then proposed marriage to Griselda himself. He warned her, though, that if she said yes to him, she would have to obey him always and in everything.

Griselda agreed, and the Marquis’s ladies-in-waiting dressed her in white silk and adorned her hair. Marlene interjects to remark how “normal” the Marquis seemed at first. Griselda laments that Marlene is “always so critical of him.” Marlene tells Griselda that the Marquis did, after all, take away her children. Griselda explains to the rest of the women that the Marquis had a hard time believing Griselda loved him and would obey him, so he decided to test her. Marlene remarks that the Marquis didn’t “like women.”

Griselda begins telling the other women how her first child, a girl, was taken away at only six weeks old. Nijo commiserates about how awful it is to have a child taken away. Though Griselda feared that the Marquis was going to kill the child, she allowed him to take it—after all, she had promised obedience. Marlene, unable to stand Griselda’s story, gets up to go to the bathroom. The waitress brings in dessert as Griselda continues. Nijo empathizes with Griselda—she understands that the Marquis was Griselda’s whole life.

Four years later, Griselda says, she gave birth to a boy—but when he was two years old, the Marquis took that child away, too. Griselda allowed him to do so again. Nijo asks if the second time was easier or harder—Griselda replies that “it was always easy because [she] always knew [she] would do what he said.” Twelve years later, she continues, he tested her again—he sent her away, explaining that his people wanted him to marry someone else. Griselda left in just a shift, and returned to her father’s house, where “everyone was crying” except Griselda herself. Soon, though, the Marquis sent for her again, asking her to help prepare his wedding.

At the ceremony, the Marquis’s sixteen-year-old bride and her younger brother, serving as her page, arrived. The Marquis then embraced Griselda and told her that the girl and the page were none other than her son and daughter. Marlene says that the Marquis was a “monster.” Joan, incredulous, asks if Griselda forgave the Marquis—she says that she did, and returned to her life with him, where she was dressed again in cloth of gold. Nijo begins crying, and says that nobody ever gave her back her children.

Joan comforts Nijo, telling her not to cry. Nijo talks about the deaths of her father and the Emperor—she was not allowed in the palace while the Emperor was dying, and had to sneak in to visit his coffin. Nijo wonders if she would have been allowed to wear full mourning garb if she had still been at court.

Nijo, now on a tear, begins talking about a time when she was eighteen years old, and subjected to a Full Moon Ceremony during which all of the women at court were beaten across the loins with sticks so that they would bear sons, not daughters. The Emperor beat all of his concubines—though this was “normal,” Nijo says, what made her angry was that the Emperor told his attendants that they could beat the women, as well. She and one of the other concubines made a secret plan to hide in the Emperor’s room that night—when the Emperor came in to go to bed, her conspirator seized him and held him while Nijo beat him until he promised “he would never order anyone to hit [them] again.”

The waitress comes and pours everyone more brandy. Joan drunkenly begins reciting a long prayer in Latin, part of which, in translation, expresses the calm feeling of watching the suffering of others from a distance. The women, all drunk, talk over one another. Griselda says it would’ve been “nicer” if her husband hadn’t taken away her children. Isabella asks everyone why she should be made to live as a lady. Nijo reflects on hitting the Emperor, over and over, with a stick.

Finally, Gret begins talking. She describes pillaging Hell with the other women of her village. Marlene urges Joan, who is still chanting in Latin, to be quiet so they all can hear Gret speak. Gret describes a nightmarish, surreal scene of her village on fire, invaded by demons. She and the women of the village tried to beat the demons back, but they refused to back down. Their village had “had worse,” though; when the Spanish invaded, many women had to watch their children die. Gret describes seeing her son’s corpse be picked at by birds. With the invasion of the demons, Gret says, she’d had enough. Recalling the charge against the demons, Gret says she gave the devils “such a beating.”

Joan resumes her chanting. Isabella describes returning to Morocco on one last journey, in her old age. Nijo begins laughing and crying simultaneously; Joan vomits, and Griselda comforts her. Isabella proudly declares that she was, at seventy, the only European woman to have ever seen the Emperor of Morocco. Though she knew the return of her strength was “only temporary,” it was “marvelous while it lasted.”